Parcel Maps in Rodeo, CA

Rodeo's core was laid out as a speculative grid in the 1890s, and that original plat still governs how lots work in the older downtown blocks. Grids of that era were often drawn in narrow increments, and over more than a century the ownership pattern has drifted: houses straddling internal lot lines, garages built across a neighbor's strip, side yards fenced to lines that never matched the record. This is classic territory for lot line adjustments and mergers under the Subdivision Map Act. An adjustment shifts a boundary between existing parcels to match how the land is actually used; a merger combines substandard grid lots into one buildable parcel. Both are far less expensive than a full subdivision, and both start with a careful retracement of the original plat.

Because Rodeo is unincorporated, everything runs through Contra Costa County — planning approval, map check by the County Surveyor, and recordation with the County Recorder in Martinez. We prepare the legal descriptions, plats, and exhibits the county requires, and we set or perpetuate monuments in compliance with Business and Professions Code §8771 so the adjusted lines are recoverable decades from now. On blocks where original monuments have been lost to street work and utility trenching, our retracement ties the surviving evidence together before any new line is fixed.

Our Trimble terrestrial laser scanner is particularly effective on Rodeo's tight older blocks: one mobilization captures fences, cottages, curb lines, and grade across several parcels at survey-grade accuracy, giving us both the boundary evidence and a topographic base for any development that follows the map action. For waterfront-margin parcels near San Pablo Bay, we also note that state Seismic Hazards Mapping Act zones for liquefaction can apply to low-lying bayside ground — a disclosure and design consideration worth confirming during feasibility, before the map is drawn.